Thanks, Stan! There are free-roaming Agaves all over this section of the property. Tons of cool rock-piles, too. This particular Agave is the largest, however. David, this Agave is about seven feet tall...just a baby, eh? ;) But seriously, these Agaves have always made me think of giant squid... must be the patterned leaves... Here's a shot of the "backside" A smaller clump by the driveway: Josh

I wanted to show the progress of my two A. polyphylla, but having issues adding the photos so bare with me a moment... I got them both in late March of this year. I had some better photos where my hand was beside them when I first potted them up, but I’m having trouble getting them from the cloud. Hopefully you can get the idea. Ok so the first two are the same plant end of March 2020 and then today. It’s grown quite a bit but no spiral yet. The ruler in the top pic shows that it was about 4 inches across in March. Edited to add: I finally got the March pictures from the cloud. WHEW! Here is the smaller one. It’s grown quite a few new leaves & has filled out. No spiral here yet, either. I’m happy they made it through the heat of the Summer. We’ve had some cold nights down in the 40’s F. I haven’t covered them so far. Do I need to? Thanks in advance for any advice you can share.

Can you talk with your neighbours about the tree? If it makes a difference for your garden I would at least try to find a solution for both parts. Maybe they can still find another place for it as long as it is young...I miss that big tree, it has been here when I moved into the house 35 plus years ago and it will be interesting to see what happens next year. Thank you all for your kind words about that planter. nicholsworth once said that I'm an experimental gardener and that is true in some ways. But mostly I have a sudden idea and I never hesitate to follow my head...I got two new aloe and immediately decided to combine them with my already existing plants. Canada is not well known for succulents :-) Might be the climate that does not really fit for such plants. You could keep them alive with plant lights in winter or let them sleep like hosta. I will try both methods this year. But our winter is not as long as yours..Sansevieria and aloe are definitely ones you could try because they grow inside without problems. I spent this rainy weekend with putting most of my succulents in terracotta pots and I got some kind of plastic tray from our gardener which holds 12 pots and I can water the pots in those trays. So I could arrange them without all those little plates under them and it looks much nicer now.

Agree with what daxeek said... It is definitely etiolated. That color - from reddish to darker, almost brown - is desired by many. It happens in strong light. Acclimatizing any succulent to full sun is important for any plant, to avoid sunburn. Which is different from suntan :) Just MO, but it is overpotted - pot too large for plant. But you could leave it in it, since this plant should grow fast and will fill up that pot eventually. In the meantime, it is important to make sure it doesn't sit in soil that is wet for too long. Big pot = lots of soil/mix = takes longer to dry up. Easiest way to find out how dry it is would be using bamboo skewer (or chopstick, thin dowel or even pencil). That way you can insert it deep inside - more important to know how wet or dry it is deep in the pt. Top will dry up fast, but roots are deeper and will rot if in wet medium for long times. IF MY plant, I would cut it quite a bit. Something like this (just a suggestion): yellow line is where I would be trimming off long branches and leaving rest (with roots) in the pot; these should continue growing. Blue line suggest trimming long cuttings, they are just too long. But you could cut them into few pieces: Etiolated parts will stay as long as they are, so your plant will not look as neat as it could. That's why you need to trim/behead it. Any cuttings can be stuck in dry medium, and they will root fast and easy. Mine are still outside, and will be until it gets consistently cold overnight. Hoping for few weeks...In the meantime, they are exposed to any rain we get, and none is suffering. Crenda grows many outside (great weather in Fla!), bring them indoors for winter. But you have to assure good light, otherwise it will keep growing same. Above all: do not be terrified :) ETA: Crenda posted great post and photos...and, pls. indicate where you are (best to put that info next to your name as others do).